Devices may be used to manage organs that facilitate the passage of air or food in the body. In particular, airway management devices are used to assist in speaking and breathing following a laryngectomy, promote healing in the patient, provide an access point for forced ventilation of a patient, and act as a conduit for supplying oxygen to augment normal breathing. Examples of such devices include bronchial and tracheal stents, tracheal T-tubes, and tracheal Y-stents, which can be used in conjunction with a tracheostomy tube.
Bronchial and tracheal stents are prostheses that relieve an area of obstruction in the airways that lead to each lung. These stents are also used to prevent encroachment of masses, such as a tumour, into the airway.
Nasal septal buttons are devices which are inserted to close off a hole or aperture that may have formed in a medical patient's nasal septum as a result of a secondary infection resulting from an infectious disease like tuberculosis, nasal trauma, septal surgery, or the like.
Nasal splints are often used to relieve obstructions in the nasal cavity that may occur, for example, following surgery of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses. Nasal splints are inserted after nasal surgery on turbinates, the polyps (polypectomy), the septum (septoplasty), and after sinus surgery. The splints offer an airway (if the design incorporates a lumen, or tube); reduce, prevent or treat, the occurrence of synechiae formation (granulation); prevent adhesions of tissues or membranes within the nasal cavity, and control bleeding.
Devices can also be used to manage the esophagus. One example is a salivary bypass tube, which can stent the esophagus and prevent encroachment of masses such as tumours or salivary fistulas that grow in the tracheo-esophogeal wall.
However, delivery and positioning of these devices in airways or the esophagus may be difficult. These devices may require being sutured in place, especially if precise positioning is necessary, and are often comprised of material such as silicone rubber that may tear when a suture is passed through its wall. Further, these devices are often plagued by granulation, crusting and mucus build up, and such devices are at risk of compromising bodily walls. In addition, devices, especially those for airway management, can be difficult for the patient to clean and maintain, and ease of insertion and removal of complementary devices such as tubes can be hampered by the build up or encrustation of bodily fluids or by device fit friction.